1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention provides a method, system and program product for planning and managing a call center study. Specifically, the present invention allows a call center study to be more effectively planned and managed in view of desired targets and available resources.
2. Related Art
In business and government, many organizations utilize a call center to handle communications with customers and citizens. Such call centers can send or receive many types of calls ranging from accounting/billing questions to product or service inquiries. However, due to their large requirements in terms of infrastructure and resources, many organizations have begun outsourcing their call centers to third party organizations. Two types of outsourcing commonly practiced are Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO).
Under BPO, an outsourcer assumes the responsibility of performing one or more business processes that were previously done by the client company or another outsourcer. The business processes are typically changed only slightly, if at all, but lower labor rates generally enable an overall reduction in the cost of performing the business processes. To this extent, Information Technology (IT) may or may not play a significant role in reducing the cost of the outsourced business process.
In contrast, under BTO, business processes are also assumed by the outsourcer, but the business processes themselves may be substantially changed, often through IT and business process redesign. Before BTO agreements are reached, call center studies can be an important part of due diligence unless the client company and the outsourcer are willing to rely on industry benchmarks or previous engagements. However, given the changes to the business processes and IT that can occur during BTO, industry benchmarks and previous engagement may no longer be applicable.
For example, if BTO service level agreements are tied to a reduction in Average Handle Time (AHT) for calls as well as a reduction in cost per minute to handle calls, the outsourcer must understand both current and future AHT in order to quantify the expected savings. Likewise, if BTO service level agreements are tied to an increase in customer satisfaction, the outsourcer must understand what drives both current and future satisfaction in order to quantify the expected changes. However, neither AHT nor satisfaction changes for a particular client can be predicted accurately from industry benchmarks unless that client and the outsourcer are typical of clients and outsourcers included in the benchmarks, which is rarely the case. Accordingly, call center studies need to be performed to meet goals such as these. Unfortunately, no existing system provides a way to accurately plan and manage a call center study for either industry benchmarks or particular clients. To this extent, no existing system operates with an understanding of the factors that can influence various call center-related goals such as lowering AHT.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for planning and managing a call center study. Specifically, a need exists for a system whereby parameters such as target values can be input and used to statistically plan the call center study. A further need exists for actual values to be compared to the target values to determine the effectiveness and/or completion point of the call center study.